


Everlasting

by antonomasia09



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, CT-5597 | Jesse Lives, Clone Chips (Star Wars), Episode: s07e12 Victory and Death, Fix-It, Gen, Order 66
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:47:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24016180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antonomasia09/pseuds/antonomasia09
Summary: Maul left something in Jesse's head.
Relationships: CT-5597 | Jesse & CT-7567 | Rex, CT-5597 | Jesse & Darth Maul
Comments: 9
Kudos: 128





	Everlasting

Maul wakes in a box. He can’t move his arms, can’t move his legs, can’t move his head. Can barely breathe through whatever’s covering his face. Can barely feel the Force, just the hum of electricity behind his back.

Actually, he’s surprised he can feel the Force at all. He’s familiar with nullifiers, was trained to resist the damage they did to a Force-sensitive’s mind. 

But there it is, just the faintest trickle. Not enough to open the box and free himself. Just enough to sense it. Just enough to feel what he left behind in ARC Trooper Jesse’s mind. Maul closes his eyes, takes a breath, and _pulls_.

***

Jesse can’t stop shaking. He’s been in medical ever since Maul let him go and Rex half-carried him to a shuttle. The commander stayed by his side as long as he could, but the battle to retake the city wasn’t over yet, and Rex was still needed.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Kix was here, Jesse thinks. His brother always knew how to make him feel better, ever since they were cadets. It’s what made him such a good medic.

But Kix is gone, vanished into thin air, and the medics that are left are sympathetic, but they’re too busy treating blaster wounds and broken limbs to do more than offer Jesse a sedative, which he refused.

It’s quieter now that the fighting is done. There’s a palpable sense of relief in the air; they’ve won, they’ve done the impossible and captured Maul, the war might even be over soon.

Jesse curls himself into a ball, covering his head with his arms, trying to convince himself that he’s safe now, that the feeling of fingers inside his skull is just his imagination.

And then.

CT-5597 sits up, perfectly steady. He has to get to Maul.

He practically leaps off his cot and heads for the door. A medic rushes over, confused, but CT-5597 just waves a hand at him. “I’m fine, trooper,” he says. “Go back to taking care of the ones that need it.”

CT-5597 makes his way down to the detention level. “I’m here to check on the prisoner,” he tells the guards at the end of the hallway, who nod and let him through.

The guards right outside the door aren’t convinced. “We’re not supposed to let anyone besides Commander Tano in,” one of them says. 

CT-5597 nods, briefly checks that the guards at the end of the hallway are too far away to hear anything, and slams both of the ones in front of him against the wall at the same time. They slump to the floor, and CT-5597 quickly keys open the cell, drags them inside, and tucks their weapons into his belt.

There’s some sort of stasis container sitting near the back of the cell. The lighting is terrible, but CT-5597 can make out Maul’s glowing yellow eyes through the chamber’s window.

He doesn’t know the code to unlock it, and shooting it would bring the other guards running, so CT-5597 settles for bashing the mechanism with the butt of the blaster until it shorts out and the door swings open.

Maul snaps the cuffs holding him in place, and steps out gracefully, stretching his arms and rolling his neck. CT-5597 stands at attention and waits for further orders.

“Excellent,” Maul says. “Now, I need to get off this ship.”

“I can get you to the shuttle bay,” CT-5597 says. “We’re scheduled to drop out of lightspeed within the next ten minutes in order to switch hyperlanes. I’ll open the hangar doors for you from the control room, and you can make the jump to hyperspace as soon as you’re clear of the ship.”

“Then do it.”

CT-5597 nods, and hesitates a moment before grabbing a pair of cuffs from one of the guards on the floor. “Do you mind, sir?” he says. “It’ll be easier if it looks like I’m escorting you as a prisoner.”

Maul eyes the cuffs disdainfully, but allows CT-5597 to bind his hands. 

They step out of the cell together. CT-5597 puts one hand on Maul’s shoulder and points a blaster at Maul with the other, and shoves him forward. Maul staggers, and does a credible job of acting disoriented.

“Commander Tano commed me,” CT-5597 tells the guards when they reach the end of the hall. “The prisoner is getting transferred to a more secure ship when we make the hyperlane switch.”

They eye him doubtfully. “Do you want help with the escort?” one asks.

CT-5597 shakes his head. “I can handle it,” he says. He gives Maul another push, not wanting to waste time talking to the troopers and making them more suspicious.

The guards let them pass, but CT-5597 picks up the pace once they’re in the hallways. “They might comm for confirmation,” he says quietly, and Maul tilts his head in the barest incline.

They make it to the hangar bay unchallenged, though, and CT-5597 unlocks the closest hyperspace-capable shuttle he can find. Maul steps onto the ramp, then turns and grabs CT-5597 tightly, one hand on either side of CT-5597’s skull, fingers digging in. “You’re _mine_ ” he whispers fiercely. “No one else’s.”

“Of course,” CT-5597 says, confused. Who else would he belong to?

Maul lets go and vanishes up the ramp. CT-5597 heads for the control room, reaching it just in time to feel the drag-skip as the ship drops back into normal space. His head is pounding and he doesn’t know why, just knows that he has to open the hangar doors. He blinks, vision going in and out of focus, but his shaky hands manage to hit the button before he collapses to the floor.

***

Jesse wakes to two fuzzy faces above him, that resolve themselves into Commanders Tano and Rex. His head feels like it’s been stuffed with cotton and then had a hot spike jammed through it.

He closes his eyes for a moment, gathering himself, and then sits up gingerly. Hands catch him when he sways forward and nearly falls on his face.

He’s back in the medbay (back? Did he leave?) and his hand comes away bloody when he swipes under his nose, and he has no idea what’s going on.

“Jesse,” Rex says gently. “Can you tell us what happened?”

There’s something in his mind, some fragment of memory, but it’s gone when he tries to reach for it. Jesse shakes his head, and groans when that makes the pain even worse, and buries his face in his arms. He thinks he might be sick.

“That’s okay,” Rex says, and helps Jesse to lie down again, then steps aside.

“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Commander Tano asks quietly. “All the tests are coming up negative.”

Rex hesitates. “I don’t…maybe,” he says. “Something happened shortly after you…left. Something with Fives.”

“What happened to him?”

“He was sick. Or, or something. He was barely making sense. But he told me and General Skywalker that every clone had a chip in our brain, and that it could be used to control us.”

Commander Tano sucks in a breath. “But there’s nothing on the scans.”

“Try a level five atomic scan.”

Jesse shivers, and feels a rough hand drift across his tattoo. “It’s okay,” Rex says.

Then the examination table slides backwards and he’s surrounded by a humming glowing tube, and Jesse cries out because it _hurts_ but then it’s done and Rex is clutching him tightly to his chest.

“I see it,” Commander Tano says. “Can we get it out?”

“Fives said he did.”

There’s a whir of a surgical droid, and Jesse is scared and tired and doesn’t want to let go of Rex, but Rex eases him back down.

“It’ll all be over soon,” Rex says, and then something pinches Jesse’s neck and he slips away.

***

The next time Jesse blinks awake, everything is clear, and his headache is practically gone, except for a sharp spike in one temple. When he reaches up to investigate, he finds a bacta patch covering the area that hurts the worst.

“Are you back with us?” Rex says. Jesse swallows and nods.

Memories are starting to filter in, still hazy and indistinct, but… “I let Maul go,” Jesse says, horrified.

“What did he do to you?” Commander Tano says.

“I don’t know. It was like I wasn’t myself. I just knew I needed to follow his orders.” Jesse can feel hands wrapped around his head, a vicious _you’re MINE_ , and shudders.

Commander Tano turns to Rex. “I want that kriffing chip out of every clone’s head, right now. This can’t be allowed to happen again.”

Rex looks pale, and his fingers are twitching like he wants to rip his own out himself. “Agreed,” he says. “We can do it in shifts. It’s a fast surgery with minimal recovery afterwards. With three med droids and five clone medics, we should be done in two to three hours.”

“Good,” Ahsoka says. “I’m going to comm the Council to let them know what happened, and recommend that they do the same for all the rest of the troops as soon as possible.”

“Yes sir,” Rex says, relief audible in his voice. As she leaves, he touches his wrist comm and announces, “All off-duty personnel, please report to the medical bay.”

He turns to Jesse, who’s still huddled on the surgical table. “Can you get up?” he asks.

“Yes,” Jesse says, but lets Rex help him to his feet anyway, and leans against his commander heavily.

“You’re okay,” Rex says. “You’re going to be fine.”

Jesse takes a shaky breath and straightens up. “Yeah,” he says. “I am.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd had the idea that Maul was going to use Jesse ever since he let him go, but I wanted to wait and see what happened. And then I watched the last episode and just did a hard NOPE and immediately wrote this. It may not be a total fix-it, since most of the other clone troopers are actively in battle and may not get the chips out in time, but at least the 332nd (and, most importantly, Jesse) are okay.


End file.
